Saturday, October 22, 2011

This may be a good year for Pentax. Stranger things have happened before. Read the facts.

This may be a good year for Pentax. All over the internet, there are talks about the production problems of the major camera players. With the flood in Thailand, Canon, Nikon and Sony have been forced to cease operations and a good majotity of their cameras are not currently being manufactured. It is unfortunate, but buyers may have to pospone their purchases or look for another brand, while this shortage continues.

Sony says it is postponing production of its new A77, A65, and NEX-7 cameras due to supply and production interruptions in Thailand, a result of the extensive flooding there.

Canon makes printers in Thailand and some of their DSLRs, although I'm not certain which they are.

Western Digital Hard Drive production facility was badly damaged and there are talks that Hard Drive prices and availability worldwide will be greatly affected.

Olympus also has some problems. The ousted CEO of Olympus says he was fired for raising questions about more than 675 million in alleged improper payments made during acquisitions by the company between 2006 and 2008. Olympus shares plunged by one-quarter on Monday following an 18 percent fall. I'm not sure what impact this will have on camera production, but it will one way or the other.

Pentax, on the other hand, has no factory affecting production of it's DSLRs and lenses. They are lucky. With the acquisition by Ricoh, and the unavailability of some of the major cameras and lenses at this time, Pentax may inherit some sales by default. Stranger things have happened before.

Ricoh's goal:

The goal of the Acquisition is to establish a firmer presence in the consumer business, which has been a considerable challenge for Ricoh.

Ricoh believes that the borderline between office and home will fade and this will be reflected in a major change in products and services. Ricoh aims to provide more consumer–oriented offerings not only in the field of digital cameras but also video conferencing systems, network appliances, and others, to their customers around the world. The Acquisition is the first step in this direction.

Ricoh intends to maximize the synergy from the merger between Ricoh’s digital camera business and PENTAX Imaging System Business in various ways.

1) Strengthening the digital camera business

Enhanced interchangeable-lens cameras to meet expected future growth

Expansion of product lineup and interchangeable lens portfolio

2) Creation of new business delivering added value to consumers

Creation and development of value-added businesses such as making it easy to view, save and retouch photos.

As a precursor to my upcoming e-book for the Pentax Q system, and in appreciation of your encouragement, I am giving a 25% discount on all e-books purchased between now and October 31, 2011. All you have to do is to enter this coupon code at purchase time.